1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an image displaying method and apparatus for reproducing visible images from image signals and displaying them. This invention particularly relates to an image displaying method and apparatus for displaying control format images, in which a plurality of images are arrayed in a desired display form, as visible images.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Techniques for utilizing filing systems have heretofore been carried out. With the techniques, a plurality of image signals representing a plurality of images are stored in a filing system, which is provided with a storage medium, such as an optical disk. When necessary, a desired image signal is read from the filing system, and a visible image is reproduced from the image signal.
In the filing systems, a plurality of image signals representing a plurality of images of a single object, such as a patient, which images are related to one another, are often stored on the storage medium. Examples of the plurality of images, which are related to one another, include a plurality of tomographic images of a single object, such as a human body, which are recorded successively, e.g. computed tomography (CT) images and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) images, and a plurality of contrasted images, which are obtained by recording the images of different portions of a single object such that, for example, as in a gastric examination, the state of movement of swallowed barium from the esophagus to the stomach can be viewed. When the plurality of images, which are related to one another, are to be viewed, necessary operations have heretofore been carried out by a person, who view the images, such that the images may be reproduced from the corresponding image signals and may be displayed in a desired display form on an image reproducing means, such as a cathode ray tube (CRT) display device. For example, in cases where the number of the images, which are related to one another, is 12, they are displayed as control format images, in which the 12 images are arrayed in a matrix-like form comprising 3.times.4 frames.
Also, it is often carried out that a plurality of images arrayed in a display form are recorded on a single sheet of film, and a diagnosis, or the like, is made by viewing the film, on which the images are recorded. However, in cases where the control format images are displayed on a display means, such as a CRT display device, it often occurs that each of the frame images becomes small, depending upon the size of the display surface of the CRT display device, and becomes illegible such that the images displayed on the CRT display device cannot be used as an effective tool in, particularly, the accurate and efficient diagnosis of an illness.
In such cases, it is considered to enlarge the control format images and to display the enlarged images on the display means. However, with such a method, it often occurs that each frame image is limited by the size of the display means (e.g., the size of the display surface of the CRT display device) and is interrupted, depending upon the scale of enlargement. If the interrupted frame image is the one which is to be used, the enlarged control format images must be scrolled and moved such that the entire area of the image to be used may be displayed on the display means. Therefore, the operation for viewing a desired image cannot be kept simple.